This paper presents an analysis of musical terminology in the Croatian language, with emphasis on etymology. The main source of the term is Music encyclopedia edited by Kresimir Kovacevic and etymological dictionaries used in the analysis of materials are: Alemko Gluhak: Etymological Croatian dictionary; Petar Skok: Etymological dictionary of Croatian or Serbian language; Ottorino Pianigiani: Vocabolario etimologico della lingua italiana and Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary. Content includes 494 terms in the field of rhythm and sound, tone and styles, intervals and chords, instruments, musical forms and musical marks. During the etymological analzes some terms were subjected to analysis of linguistic borrowing to smooth the way to the final etymon, and it turned out that the terms were borrowed primarily because of cultural or extralinguistic reasons, and linguistic borrowing whose kept in near geographical area, mostly from Latin and Italian language. As the Indo-European language is actually only theoretical, translations of etymons are generalized. This work has shown the development path of music that has developed from the initial ritual dances into the high culture, and now increasingly becomes part of mass culture.